Most enduring of the many legends about the Great Wall is the story of Meng Jiangnu, whose wails toppled it.

After he had finished conquering the six other states and had brought the country under one rule in 221 B.C., Qin Shi Huang, the First Emperor, was concerned about raids by the Xiongnu, a nomadic people to the north. The previous states had built many sections of defended wall to keep them out. The First Emperor launched agrandiose project of linking them into one, which became known as the Great Wall.

He sent one of his generals north with 500,000 laborers. Among those conscripted for the task was Meng Jiangnu's husband Wan Xiliang. There are different versions as to how he became her husband. She had been raised by a family other than her own, so bore two surnames, and was known as "the Meng-Jiang girl." One version has it that he was chosen from among numerous candidates by both families; another, that one day while she was in the garden, a man trying to escape from the pressgang labor leaped over the wall and landed at her feet. Her family harbored him, and they fell in love and married.

On the night of their wedding, Wan Xiliang was seized by the court officials. Before they parted, Meng took a hairpin of white jade from her head and broke it in two. She gave half to Wan Xiliang with the words."My heart is as white and pure as this jade. Keep this half and you will feel that I am with you."

Tales of the toll the wall was taking had reached her native place. The pace was brutal and the overseers merciless. Thousands upon thousands of laborers died of overwork and maltreatment. Ancient books were later to record that "the ditches were filled with corpses," and that "piled-up skeletons supported one another."

Nothing was heard of Wan Xiliang after he left. When autumn came and the birds began to fly south, Meng Jiangnu recalled that when he left he had been wearing only thin clothing. She made him some padded clothes, bade her parants foodbye and left in search of her husband.

One day, hungary and exhausted, she fainted by the roadside. When she came to life she found that she was lying on a comfortably heated kang brick bed and a white-haired old woman was attending her. Meng was very eager to get on with her journey, and the old woman accompanied her. After three days and nights, Meng Jiangnu decided to say goodbye to her and thank her for her kjindness, but when she turned to her the old woman had disappeared. The legend suggests that she was an immortal who, moved by Meng's devotion, had assumed a disguise to care fro her.

Once Meng Jiangnu got lost and was wandering around in the mountains. Then she heard a flock of wild geese that seemed to be beckoning her. She followed them and finally reached the Great Wall.

There she saw the workers dressed in rags and reduced to skin and bones. Was her husband, too, like this? She mounted a guard platform high above the wall and shouted until her voice was hoarse, but found no sign of her husband.